NEW YORK — “The men who (excommunicated me) literally think they kicked me out of heaven,” Ordain Women founder Kate Kelly said. “Luckily, I do not think that. … Out of this experience, I’ve realized that men don’t get to control my happiness.”

BERKELEY, Calif. (RNS) “We are starting to see a significant disconnect between what the church is telling people to believe about same-sex marriage and homosexuality and what people actually believe and accept,” said LGBT activist John Gustav-Wrathall. “I think the Internet has a lot to do with that.”

JERUSALEM (RNS) Jews from Manhattan to Mozambique held prayer vigils on Monday (Oct. 22) to protest the arrest and incarceration of an Israeli feminist as she was leading 250 American Jewish women in prayer at the Western Wall. By Michele Chabin.

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SALT LAKE CITY (RNS) While some Mormon feminists want access to the all-male priesthood and others see it as blasphemy, a third group of Mormon women crave a more engaged and visible role for women in the church that respects history and doesn't compromise doctrine. By Peggy Fletcher Stack.

VATICAN CITY (RNS) She is revered both by radical feminists and by Pope Benedict XVI, who has often turned to her in the most difficult moments of his pontificate: Hildegard von Bingen, a 12th-century German prophetess who was officially declared a saint by Benedict on Thursday. By Alessandro Speciale.